“Once convince a man,” Mr. Bomford continued,
“that you are offering him something which will
improve his health, and he is yours, or rather his
money is—­his two and sixpence or whatever
particular sum you may have designed to relieve him
of. It is for that reason that you see the pages
of the magazines and newspapers filled with advertisements
of new cures for ancient diseases. There is more
money in the country than there has ever been, but
there are just the same number of real and fancied
diseases. Mankind is, if possible, more credulous
to-day than at any epoch during our history.
There are millions who will snatch at the slightest
chance of getting rid of some real or fancied ailment.
Great journals have endeavored to persuade us that
you can attain perfect health by standing on your
head in the bathroom for ten minutes before breakfast.
A million bodies, distorted into strange shapes, can
be seen every morning in the domestic bed-chamber.
A health-food made from old bones has been one of
the brilliant successes of this generation. Now
listen to my motto. This is what I want to bring
home to every inhabitant of this country. This
is what I want to see in great black type in every
newspaper, on every hoarding, and if possible flashed
at night upon the sky: ’Cure the mind first;
the mind will cure the body.’ That,”
Mr. Bomford concluded, modestly, “is my idea
of one of our preliminary advertisements.”

The professor nodded approvingly. Burton glanced
from one to the other of the two men with an air of
almost pitiful non-comprehension. Mr. Bomford,
having emptied his glass of claret, started afresh.

“My idea, in short,” he went on, “is
this. Let us three join forces. Let us analyze
this marvelous product, into the possession of which
you, Mr. Burton, have so mysteriously come. Let
us, blending its constituents as nearly as possible,
place upon the market a health-food not for the body
but for the mind. You follow me now, I am sure?
Menti-culture is the craze of the moment. It would
become the craze of the million but for a certain
vagueness in its principles, a certain lack of appeal
to direct energies. We will preach the cause.
We will give the public something to buy. We
will ask them ten and sixpence a time and they will
pay it gladly. What is more, Mr. Burton, the public
will pay it all over the world. America will become
our greatest market. Nothing like this has ever
before been conceived, ’Leave your bodies alone
for a time,’ we shall say. ’Take our
food and improve your moral system.’ We
shall become the crusaders of commerce. Your story
will be told in every quarter of the globe, it will
be translated into every conceivable tongue.
Your picture will very likely adorn the lid of our
boxes. It will be a matter for consideration,
indeed, whether we shall not name this great discovery
after you.”